Section 8. Creating Good Places for Interaction

Communities are shaped by the relationships among the people who live, work, learn, gather, and participate in them. Those relationships may develop through families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, faith communities, cultural organizations, businesses, recreation, public institutions, and everyday encounters in shared spaces.

Social, economic, technological, and demographic changes can affect how often people encounter one another in everyday life. People may live near neighbors they do not know, work or study far from where they live, communicate increasingly through digital spaces, or belong to communities that extend well beyond a particular neighborhood.

At the same time, communities may include people with different cultures, languages, ages, abilities, household structures, economic circumstances, experiences, and perspectives. Shared spaces can provide opportunities for people to participate in community life, build relationships, exchange ideas, and develop a stronger sense of belonging.

This section explores how the built environment, programming, policy, and community participation can help create places where people can comfortably gather and interact.

Not everyone will use a public space in the same way or want the same amount of social interaction. A successful community space can support conversation and connection while also allowing people to observe, rest, spend time alone, or participate at their own comfort level.

What do we mean by good places for interaction?

Social interaction includes the everyday encounters through which people communicate, share experiences, exchange information, participate in activities, or simply become more familiar with one another.

Good places for interaction are welcoming, accessible spaces where people have opportunities to gather, participate in activities, spend time comfortably, and interact with others when they choose.

These spaces may bring together people from the same neighborhood or from different parts of a community. They may also create opportunities for people with different backgrounds and experiences to encounter one another in ordinary, low-pressure ways.

Four characteristics are especially important:

• There is a reason for people to go there.
• There are reasons for people to stay once they arrive.
• People can feel comfortable and reasonably safe.
• The space is welcoming, accessible, and usable by a wide range of community members.

Many different kinds of public, nonprofit, institutional, and privately operated spaces can support community interaction.

• Squares and plazas. Central public spaces can provide places for markets, performances, civic events, celebrations, informal gathering, outdoor dining, recreation, and everyday encounters.
• Public buildings and their surroundings. Libraries, government buildings, cultural institutions, and other public facilities may include plazas, steps, meeting rooms, courtyards, or other spaces used for events, public participation, and informal gathering.
• Pedestrian streets. Streets designed primarily or periodically for walking can support conversation, shopping, dining, performances, markets, recreation, and community events without the noise and movement of vehicle traffic dominating the space.
• Streets and boulevards. Wide and accessible sidewalks, trees and shade, seating, active storefronts, safe crossings, food and retail businesses, and interesting streetscapes can make streets useful not only for travel but also for community life.

Food can be an important part of community gathering. Restaurants, cafes, markets, food vendors, community meals, festivals, and picnic areas can provide natural reasons for people to spend time together.

Communities should also consider affordability. A gathering place should not require people to make a purchase in order to feel that they belong there.

• Bridges and transportation connections. Bridges with pedestrian and bicycle access, viewing areas, seating, public art, or other features can become destinations as well as transportation routes.
• Markets. Farmers' markets, public markets, street markets, and other marketplaces can combine commerce with opportunities for conversation and community activity.
• Public transportation facilities. Transit stations, stops, and waiting areas may function as community spaces when they are comfortable, accessible, well connected, easy to navigate, and integrated with surrounding businesses or services.
• Parks. Parks can bring together recreation, nature, play, exercise, community events, relaxation, food, sports, and informal gathering.
• Walking, rolling, and bicycling routes. Trails, greenways, sidewalks, and similar routes can provide both transportation and opportunities for recreation and everyday social contact.

To learn more about creating community trails, visit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

• Theaters, sports facilities, libraries, museums, and other cultural or recreational spaces. Shared activities can give people a common experience that creates opportunities for conversation and connection.
• Schools. Schools can create opportunities for students and families from different backgrounds to learn, build relationships, participate in activities, and contribute to their communities. Inclusive school climates, respectful relationships, accessible activities, and meaningful family and community engagement can strengthen those opportunities.
• College and university campuses. Campuses may provide public lectures, performances, libraries, museums, recreation, public art, green space, and other opportunities for community participation when those resources are open and accessible to the public.
• Community centers, faith-community facilities, and nonprofit spaces. Classes, meals, meetings, recreation, cultural programs, support groups, and other activities can bring people together around shared interests and needs.
• Commercial gathering places. Shopping areas, cafes, indoor markets, and similar privately operated spaces may also function as community gathering places when they are welcoming, accessible, affordable to use, and connected with the surrounding community.

Commercial redevelopment can create attractive gathering places, but it may also change who feels able to use a space. Cost, transportation, business mix, rules of use, displacement, and changes in neighborhood identity can all affect whether existing residents continue to feel that a place belongs to them.

Why create good places for interaction?

• They can strengthen belonging and community stewardship. People who help shape a shared space may develop stronger connections to it and greater interest in its long-term care and success.
• They can create opportunities for relationships across differences. Repeated, everyday contact can help people learn about one another's experiences and develop relationships that may not otherwise form.
• They can expand opportunities for children and young people. Shared community spaces can expose young people to different interests, experiences, cultures, activities, mentors, peers, and ways of participating in community life.
• They can support social connection. Familiar faces, informal conversations, shared activities, and regular encounters can contribute to a sense of belonging.
• They can make community life more enjoyable. Festivals, food, recreation, cultural traditions, music, conversation, nature, public art, and other shared experiences can enrich everyday life.
• They can contribute to community safety and mutual support. Well-used and well-maintained spaces can increase activity, visibility, familiarity, and opportunities for people to notice hazards, offer assistance, and communicate about community concerns.
• They can improve neighborhood livability. Accessible gathering places can support recreation, social connection, community events, local organizations, services, and resident-led efforts to improve neighborhood conditions.
• They can support cross-cultural learning. People may have opportunities to share language, food, art, traditions, experiences, and perspectives while learning about both differences and common interests.
• They can provide places to exchange ideas. Shared spaces can support formal public discussion as well as informal conversations about community issues.
• They can expand access to relationships and community networks. Welcoming public spaces can create opportunities for people across income levels and other differences to develop relationships, exchange information, share resources, and participate in community activities.
• They can build social capital. Repeated relationships and community participation can strengthen networks of trust, information, cooperation, and mutual support.
• They can support collective community action. Existing relationships can make it easier for people to work together when they identify a shared priority or concern.

Good places for interaction create opportunities for connection, but physical proximity alone does not guarantee trust, understanding, or equity. Relationships are also influenced by history, discrimination, power, language, economic conditions, programming, organizational practices, and how people are treated within the space.

When should you create good places for interaction?

Communities can consider interaction and belonging whenever they plan, build, renovate, maintain, or change shared spaces.

Particularly useful opportunities include:

• When the neighborhood or community is engaged in a planning process. Community plans can identify where gathering places are needed and how existing spaces can be connected, improved, or made more accessible.
• When economic or community development is underway. New investment can include public space, shade, seating, walking and bicycling connections, gathering areas, local businesses, cultural spaces, and other features that support community life.
• When new residential or commercial development is proposed. Developers, residents, planners, and public agencies can consider how a project contributes to public space, accessibility, transportation, community services, and the surrounding neighborhood.
• When major public projects are planned. Roads, bridges, sidewalks, transit projects, public buildings, parks, schools, and other public investments can include spaces and connections that support community interaction.
• When a gathering place has become underused, poorly maintained, or difficult for residents to use comfortably. Community assessment can help identify whether the issue involves maintenance, programming, lighting, transportation, accessibility, conflict, environmental design, staffing, or other conditions.
• When transportation or development may create new physical barriers. Highways, rail lines, large developments, and other projects can divide neighborhoods or make walking, bicycling, transit, and everyday connection more difficult.
• When an existing gathering place is threatened. Funding cuts, redevelopment, changes in ownership, environmental conditions, or other factors may reduce public access to spaces that residents value.
• When residents identify tension, isolation, or limited interaction among groups. Shared spaces and activities may create opportunities for contact, but the approach should be developed with the people involved and should take history, safety, power, and the nature of the conflict into account.

A shared park, recreation center, or public event should not be expected to resolve serious conflict by itself. When a community is experiencing violence, harassment, discrimination, or longstanding conflict, additional strategies may be needed alongside improvements to physical space.

Who should be involved in creating good places for interaction?

The people who currently use a space, the people who might use it if barriers were removed, and the people who live or work nearby should have meaningful roles in planning it.

Different community members may value different features. Families may prioritize play, restrooms, shade, and places to sit together. Young people may identify recreation, food, technology, music, sports, or informal gathering as important. Older adults may emphasize seating, shade, restrooms, transportation, and safe walking routes. People with disabilities may identify accessibility barriers that are not obvious to other participants.

Other participants may include:

• Public officials and public agencies. They may have responsibility for planning, funding, land, transportation, maintenance, permitting, public facilities, or other aspects of the project.
• Planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, and designers. These professionals can help translate community priorities into functional, accessible, safe, and sustainable spaces.
• Developers and property owners. Their projects may create or affect gathering spaces, pedestrian connections, public access, and surrounding community conditions.
• Trusted community members and resident-led organizations. They may contribute local knowledge, relationships, history, and perspectives that are important to understanding how a space is actually used.
• Businesses and business organizations. Businesses can contribute to active streets and gathering areas and may also provide funding, programming, food, services, or other resources.
• Public-safety, public-health, transportation, and social-service professionals. Their expertise may be useful when the project involves specific safety, health, mobility, or service issues.
• Community organizers and community-based organizations. These participants may help engage residents, identify barriers, organize activities, connect resources, and strengthen community participation.
• People with disabilities and accessibility organizations. Their participation can help ensure that physical, sensory, communication, cognitive, and other forms of accessibility are considered from the beginning.
• Young people. Children and adolescents should have age-appropriate opportunities to help shape spaces they use rather than being viewed only as potential sources of problems.

How do you create good places for interaction?

Four areas are especially important:

• Design: What should the space look like, feel like, and provide in order to support gathering and interaction?
• Incentives and regulations: How can policy and development tools support well-designed and accessible gathering spaces?
• Community action: How can residents and community organizations participate in creating, improving, programming, and caring for shared spaces?
• Community participation and advocacy: How can residents participate in the public and private decisions that shape community gathering places?

Design

Communities have always created places where people gather, although the form of those places changes over time. Markets, porches, public squares, parks, libraries, places of worship, recreation facilities, cafes, transit stations, workplaces, community centers, and digital communication all play different roles in community life.

Modern development patterns, transportation systems, technology, and changing work and household patterns can either create opportunities for interaction or make them more difficult.

Thoughtful design can help ensure that communities continue to have shared places where people can gather, participate in activities, rest, observe, and interact.

The four basic principles remain:

• Provide reasons to come.
• Provide reasons to stay.
• Support comfort and safety.
• Be welcoming and accessible.

Good places for interaction provide reasons for people to go there

People may come because the space provides something they need – transportation, services, shopping, education, work – or because they enjoy what it offers.

Features and activities may include:

• Cafes, restaurants, and food vendors.
• Food markets and grocery shopping. Markets can combine everyday errands with dining, events, outdoor seating, play, and social activity.
• Stores and local businesses. Active storefronts can create destinations and contribute to street activity.
• Museums, libraries, and other public-access institutions.
• Transportation. Transit stops and stations can become more comfortable community spaces when they include seating, shelter, accessible information, services, and connections with nearby destinations.
• Festivals, markets, celebrations, and community events.
• Music and cultural programming.
• Street performance and public art.
• Theaters, performance spaces, cinemas, and other cultural venues.
• Recreation. Basketball courts, playgrounds, volleyball courts, fields, trails, fitness areas, games, and other recreational features can bring people together around shared activity.

Active storefronts and ground-floor uses can make streets more interesting and create more opportunities for people to see and encounter one another. Blank walls, wide vehicle entrances, difficult crossings, and other design features can make walking and gathering less comfortable.

Good places for interaction provide reasons to stay

People are more likely to spend time in a place when they can meet basic needs and choose how they want to use the space.

• Seating. Provide a range of seating options for individuals, pairs, families, and groups. Movable seating may provide additional flexibility where appropriate.
• Sun and shade. Trees, shelters, canopies, and building orientation can help make outdoor spaces usable in different seasons and weather conditions.
• A mix of larger and smaller spaces. Some people want lively group activity; others may prefer quieter conversation, observation, or time alone.
• Food and drink. Where appropriate, food vendors, picnic tables, cafes, drinking water, or places to bring food can make longer visits easier.
• Views and visual interest. Nature, architecture, art, community activity, and changing scenery can make spaces enjoyable to spend time in.
• Green space. Trees, gardens, grass, native plantings, and other vegetation can provide shade, habitat, visual interest, cooling, and opportunities to experience nature.
• Water features. Streams, fountains, splash areas, or other water elements may contribute to comfort and recreation when they are safe, accessible, environmentally appropriate, and maintainable.
• Quieter areas. Some community members benefit from places with lower noise and sensory stimulation.
• Interesting routes for walking, rolling, or moving through the space.
• A variety of activities. Spaces may support recreation, conversation, art, shopping, food, performances, play, rest, nature, community events, or other uses.
• Restrooms, drinking water, and other basic amenities. These can make spaces much more usable for children, older adults, people with disabilities, families, and people spending extended periods there.

Good places for interaction support safety and comfort

Safety should be considered through both evidence and the experiences of people who use the space. Different groups may experience the same environment differently, so planners should avoid assuming that one feature or strategy makes everyone feel safe.

Useful considerations include:

• Regular use by a variety of people. A space that is active at different times of day may feel more welcoming and provide more opportunities for informal awareness of what is happening around it.
• Clear sightlines. People should be able to understand the layout of the space, see entrances and exits, and navigate it comfortably.
• Connections with surrounding streets, businesses, homes, or other active places.
• Appropriate lighting. Lighting should support visibility, walking, wayfinding, and activities while considering glare, nearby residents, wildlife, and other effects.
• Active edges and visibility. Windows, entrances, seating, storefronts, homes, and other active uses can connect a gathering place with its surroundings.
• Age-appropriate and accessible play areas. Equipment and surfaces should be maintained and designed with appropriate safety and accessibility considerations.
• Community-informed approaches to public safety. Depending on the setting, this may include trained staff, ambassadors, outreach workers, emergency communication, public-safety personnel, conflict-resolution resources, or other strategies identified through local assessment.
• Emergency access. People should be able to obtain assistance and leave the space safely when needed.

Avoid assuming that the presence of a particular gender, age group, racial group, law-enforcement presence, or other category of people is itself proof that a space is safe. Ask different users what contributes to or reduces their sense of safety.

Comfort also matters:

• Cleanliness and maintenance. Maintain walkways, seating, landscaping, restrooms, equipment, lighting, waste facilities, public art, and other features.
• Appropriate light. Natural light can contribute to comfort, while shade and protection from glare may also be important.
• Protection from traffic and excessive noise. Landscaping, distance, barriers, traffic calming, and other design strategies can help.
• Comfortable and varied seating.
• Weather protection. Shade, shelter, wind protection, cooling, heating, or indoor alternatives may increase year-round usability.

Young people can be valuable partners in designing, programming, and caring for community spaces. Involving them should be based on their knowledge, ideas, creativity, and right to participate in decisions affecting them – not on an assumption that they otherwise would damage the space.

Good places for interaction are welcoming and accessible

People should be able to understand that they are welcome, reach the space, enter it, move through it, use its facilities, obtain information, and participate in its activities.

Consider:

• Visibility and welcoming entrances. Entrances should be easy to identify and navigate.
• Accessibility for people with disabilities. Apply current accessibility standards and involve people with disabilities in assessing entrances, routes, surfaces, seating, restrooms, recreation, communication, signs, transportation connections, and other features.
• Inclusive communication and cultural representation. Relevant languages, accessible communication, public art, interpretation, programming, and other features can reflect the communities that use the space. Representation should be developed with community members rather than based on assumptions about particular groups.
• Transportation and location. Consider walking, rolling, bicycling, public transportation, drop-off areas, and parking as appropriate to the setting.
• Ease of navigation. Paths, entrances, exits, signs, maps, lighting, and landmarks can help people find their way.
• Accessible restrooms.
• Usable public space. Rules should protect health, safety, accessibility, shared resources, and other legitimate needs without unnecessarily preventing people from using public space.
• Affordability. Include opportunities to spend time in the space without having to purchase goods, tickets, food, or services.
• Sensory accessibility. Where possible, consider noise, lighting, crowds, quiet areas, and other environmental conditions that may affect people differently.

Use participatory design

Current and potential users should be involved early enough for their participation to influence important design decisions.

Participatory design can help identify:

• How people currently use the area
• What prevents some people from using it
• What activities residents want
• Where people prefer larger or quieter gathering areas
• Accessibility needs
• Cultural or historical features that matter to the community
• Transportation and connectivity concerns
• Safety and comfort concerns
• Programming needs
• Maintenance priorities

When different groups identify different priorities, planning can explore how several needs can be accommodated without assuming that one group must give up access for another.

Incentives and regulations

Local governments may use planning, incentives, development standards, public investment, and other policy tools to encourage or require gathering spaces and pedestrian-oriented design.

The appropriate tools depend on local and state law, community priorities, the type of project, financial feasibility, and existing development requirements.

Possible incentives include:

• Tax incentives. Where authorized, governments may provide tax benefits connected with qualifying public-space or community-development goals.
• Subsidies and grants. Public or philanthropic funding may support public-space improvements that provide identified community benefits.
• Development flexibility. Where appropriate and allowed by law, density, height, parking, setback, or other development standards may be adjusted in connection with specific public benefits.
• Coordinated or expedited review. Clear and efficient review processes can reduce unnecessary delay while maintaining appropriate health, safety, accessibility, environmental, and community protections.
• Use of public land. Public property may sometimes support public gathering spaces or community-serving development through transparent public processes.
• Recognition and partnerships. Communities may recognize organizations or residents that contribute resources, programming, stewardship, or other support.

Regulations or design standards may address:

• Public or shared open space in larger developments
• Plazas, courtyards, gathering areas, seating, shade, landscaping, or pedestrian connections
• Design standards that support accessible, active, and usable public space
• Open-space requirements where appropriate
• Gathering spaces connected with housing, institutions, commercial developments, or other large projects
• Clear expectations about public access, maintenance, operating hours, accessibility, and long-term responsibility

Public projects can likewise incorporate:

• Parks, plazas, and public spaces designed around community priorities, accessibility, comfort, activity, and safety
• Accessible sidewalks, bicycle routes, street trees, safe crossings, curb ramps, seating, and other mobility infrastructure
• Pedestrian and bicycle access on bridges where appropriate
• Building designs that create active connections with streets and public spaces
• Traffic-calming, crossings, signals, signage, and other strategies that support safe walking and bicycling

Community action

Residents and community organizations can play important roles in improving shared spaces. “Friends of” organizations, neighborhood groups, youth organizations, cultural organizations, businesses, schools, and other partners may contribute ideas, programming, fundraising, stewardship, research, or volunteer activities.

Possible activities include:

• Community cleanups
• Gardening and landscaping
• Public art and cultural programming
• Community events
• Fundraising
• Resident surveys and participatory planning
• Youth programs
• Accessibility assessments
• Historical or cultural interpretation
• Volunteer stewardship

Volunteer involvement should complement, rather than automatically replace, the responsibilities of public agencies, property owners, or other organizations responsible for safe operation and long-term maintenance.

Community-led work can strengthen relationships, build skills, increase resident influence over local spaces, connect organizations, and create a foundation for addressing other community priorities.

Community participation and advocacy

Advocacy may be appropriate when community members want changes to planning, funding, design standards, development practices, public facilities, or other policies that affect shared spaces.

Begin by identifying the decision that needs to be made, who has authority over it, which people will be affected, and what formal opportunities exist for public participation.

Include people affected by the decision

Bring together current and potential users of the space, nearby residents, businesses, people with disabilities, young people, community organizations, and others with relevant knowledge or experience.

Participation should not depend on a person's political influence or institutional status. People who experience the space directly may have important knowledge even if they do not hold formal positions of power.

Do your homework

Learn about:

• How the space is currently used
• Community priorities and concerns
• Accessibility
• Safety and comfort
• Transportation
• Costs and funding
• Maintenance and staffing
• Relevant plans and regulations
• Possible alternatives
• Potential unintended consequences

If people disagree with the proposal, understand their concerns and examine whether those concerns identify weaknesses, tradeoffs, or alternatives that could improve the plan.

Participate through the appropriate decision-making process

Public meetings, planning commissions, advisory groups, budget processes, neighborhood planning, administrative review, public comment, meetings with responsible staff or officials, and other established processes may provide opportunities to contribute.

Relationships with public officials, developers, businesses, and organizations can help communication, but decisions should remain grounded in transparent processes, evidence, community experience, applicable requirements, and the merits of the proposal rather than personal access or influence.

Communicate with the public and media

Local news, newsletters, websites, social media, community meetings, signs, and other communication channels can help residents understand the issue and learn how to participate.

Communication should provide accurate information and acknowledge significant costs, disagreements, uncertainties, and tradeoffs rather than seeking only favorable coverage.

Contribute solutions

Community groups may be able to contribute design ideas, research, programming, outreach, fundraising, volunteer activities, or evaluation.

They should not be expected to absorb responsibilities that properly belong to public agencies or other organizations simply because community members care about the space.

Continue evaluating the space

After a project is completed, continue asking:

• Who is using the space?
• Who is not using it, and what barriers may explain that?
• Is it accessible?
• Do different users feel welcome?
• Is it comfortable at different times and seasons?
• Are there safety concerns?
• Is programming responsive to the community?
• Are rules being applied consistently and fairly?
• Is the space being maintained?
• Are nearby residents or businesses experiencing unintended effects?
• Has the community changed in ways that require the space to adapt?

In Summary

Good places for interaction give people opportunities to participate in community life, encounter one another, build relationships, exchange ideas, enjoy shared activities, and develop a stronger sense of belonging.

These spaces can include parks, plazas, streets, trails, markets, libraries, schools, cultural facilities, transportation hubs, community centers, businesses, and many other places.

Strong gathering places generally provide reasons to come, reasons to stay, comfort and safety, and meaningful accessibility. They also allow different people to use the space in different ways rather than requiring constant social interaction.

Community participation is essential. Current and potential users – including young people, older adults, people with disabilities, families, people from different cultural and linguistic communities, and others who may experience the space differently – can identify priorities and barriers that designers or decision-makers may otherwise overlook.

Incentives, development standards, public investment, community action, and civic participation can all help communities create and sustain shared spaces. These tools should be used transparently and with attention to accessibility, affordability, safety, maintenance, transportation, displacement, and other possible effects.

The goal is not to force people into interaction or assume that simply placing different groups in the same space will eliminate conflict or inequality. It is to create welcoming environments where people have real opportunities to participate, build relationships, enjoy community life, and shape the places they share.